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Nation struggles with how to handle workers returning from Africa's Ebola zone

Some states are ordering 21-day quarantines for any returning workers

Obama and CDC discourage quarantines, seek to allay fears

At stake is the fight against Ebola itself, advocates say

Nurse Kaci Hickox says it's her right to roam outside her home, but leaders in Maine warn she could be a threat to public welfare.

Yes, Hickox recently treated people with Ebola in West Africa, but she has no symptoms of the disease, and has twice tested negative.

"To put me in prison is just inhumane," Hickox said about being placed into an involuntary quarantine after she landed last week at the Newark, New Jersey, airport after working in Sierra Leone. "I just feel like fear is winning right now, and when fear wins, everyone loses."

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie disagreed. Citing public safety, officials had Hickox spend more than 65 hours in mandatory quarantine outside a hospital before she was released and transported to her home in Maine.

The showdown between Hickox and Maine officials strikes at a larger dilemma about what health workers ought to do when they return home from fighting the unprecedented Ebola outbreak in Africa, especially when the doctors and nurses show no symptoms of the deadly virus.

It's an emotional debate that pits individual liberty against public safety, now elevated to a high public drama because Hickox has been outspoken against a quarantine.

"I'm fighting for something much more than myself," she said Wednesday after emerging from the home where she had been staying. "There are so many aid workers coming back. It scares me to think how they're going to be treated and how they're going to feel."

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Nurse: Not intention to put any at risk01:58

But medical experts say that reaction is merely fear, and they explain that an individual without the virus' symptoms is no public threat at all.

That doesn't satisfy some Americans who demand a higher precaution: they want health care workers to be in quarantine for 21 days, the incubation period for the Ebola virus. They cite how Dr. Craig Spencer, 33, a Doctors Without Borders physician, moved freely about New York City for days until he developed Ebola. Spencer just returned from treating Ebola patients in Guinea.

"We don't react to our fears, but instead, we respond with common sense and skill and courage. That's the best of our history -- not fear, not hysteria, not misinformation," Obama said.

But in a move that seemed to contradict the White House, the Pentagon this week put 30 U.S. soldiers in quarantine -- or "controlled monitoring" -- in Italy after they were stationed in Ebola-stricken West Africa.

At stake in the quarantine debate is the fight against Ebola itself, advocates say. Specifically, it's the ability of health care workers who fight Ebola at its source to return immediately to their private and professional lives.

A 21-day quarantine would discourage this rare pool of labor from taking on such hazardous duty in Africa, advocates say. If there are fewer doctors and nurses on the Ebola front, there's a likelihood that the epidemic in West Africa could spread, experts say.

Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Photos:The Ebola epidemic

An Ebola survivor participates in a study in Monrovia, Liberia, on June 17. The country launched a five-year study to unravel the mystery of the long-term health effects that plague survivors of the viral disease. Since the epidemic started more than a year ago in a remote village in Guinea, more than 11,000 people have died, the vast majority in three West African nations, according to the latest numbers from the World Health Organization. And that number is believed to be low, since there was widespread under-reporting of cases, according to WHO.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Women in Monrovia celebrate after the World Health Organization declared Liberia Ebola-free on May 9. Other cases have recurred since, however. Two people in Liberia have died of the disease since the end of June, just weeks after the WHO declared the nation free of the disease.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

A man walks past an Ebola awareness painting in Monrovia on March 22.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Soldiers from the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division walk across the tarmac at Campbell Army Airfield before reuniting with their families at a homecoming ceremony March 21 in Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The 162 soldiers were deployed in Liberia, where they helped fight the spread of Ebola.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Relatives weep for a loved one who it was believed died from Ebola, at a graveyard on the outskirts of Monrovia on March 11.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Doctors Without Borders staffer Alex Eilert Paulsen watches as mattresses and bed frames burn at the Ebola Treatment Unit in Paynesville, Liberia, on January 31. The organization reduced its number of beds from 250 to 30 as gains were made in battling the virus.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Pauline Cafferkey, a Scottish woman diagnosed with Ebola, is put on a plane in Glasgow, Scotland, on December 30, 2014. Cafferkey, a 39-year-old nurse who volunteered in Sierra Leone, was being transported to London for treatment.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

A child who survived the Ebola virus is fed by another survivor at a treatment center on the outskirts of Freetown, Sierra Leone, on November 11, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Health workers in Monrovia cover the body of a man suspected of dying from the Ebola virus on October 31, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Kaci Hickox leaves her home in Fort Kent, Maine, to take a bike ride with her boyfriend on October 30, 2014. Hickox, a nurse, recently returned to the United States from West Africa, where she treated Ebola victims. State authorities wanted her to avoid public places for 21 days -- the virus' incubation period. But Hickox, who twice tested negative for Ebola, said she would defy efforts to keep her quarantined at home.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Health officials in Nairobi, Kenya, prepare to screen passengers arriving at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on October 28, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

U.S. President Barack Obama hugs Ebola survivor Nina Pham in the Oval Office of the White House on October 24, 2014. Pham, one of two Dallas nurses diagnosed with the virus, was declared Ebola-free after being treated at a hospital in Bethesda, Maryland. The other nurse, Amber Vinson (not pictured), was treated in Atlanta and also declared Ebola-free.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Health workers in Port Loko, Sierra Leone, transport the body of a person who is suspected to have died of Ebola on October 21, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Health workers bury a body on the outskirts of Monrovia on October 20, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Garteh Korkoryah, center, is comforted during a memorial service for her son, Thomas Eric Duncan, on October 18, 2014, in Salisbury, North Carolina. Duncan, a 42-year-old Liberian citizen, died October 8 in a Dallas hospital. He was in the country to visit his son and his son's mother, and he was the first person in the United States to be diagnosed with Ebola.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Boys run from blowing dust as a U.S. military aircraft leaves the construction site of an Ebola treatment center in Tubmanburg, Liberia, on October 15, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Aid workers from the Liberian Medical Renaissance League stage an Ebola awareness event October 15, 2014, in Monrovia. The group performs street dramas throughout Monrovia to educate the public on Ebola symptoms and how to handle people who are infected with the virus.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Ebola survivors prepare to leave a Doctors Without Borders treatment center after recovering from the virus in Paynesville, Liberia, on October 12, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

A man dressed in protective clothing treats the front porch of a Dallas apartment on October 12, 2014. The apartment is home to one of the two nurses who were diagnosed with Ebola after treating Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national who traveled to Dallas and later died from the virus.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

A woman crawls toward the body of her sister as a burial team takes her away for cremation October 10, 2014, in Monrovia. The sister had died from Ebola earlier in the morning while trying to walk to a treatment center, according to her relatives.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

A man digs a grave on October 7, 2014, outside an Ebola treatment center near Gbarnga, Liberia.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

A person peeks out from the Dallas apartment where Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the United States, was staying on October 3, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

A girl cries as community activists approach her outside her Monrovia home on October 2, 2014, a day after her mother was taken to an Ebola ward.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

A health official uses a thermometer September 29, 2014, to screen a Ukrainian crew member on the deck of a cargo ship at the Apapa port in Lagos, Nigeria.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Workers move a building into place as part of a new Ebola treatment center in Monrovia on September 28, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Medics load an Ebola patient onto a plane at Sierra Leone's Freetown-Lungi International Airport on September 22, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

A few people are seen in Freetown during a three-day nationwide lockdown on September 21, 2014. In an attempt to curb the spread of the Ebola virus, people in Sierra Leone were told to stay in their homes.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Supplies wait to be loaded onto an aircraft at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on September 20, 2014. It was the largest single shipment of aid to the Ebola zone to date, and it was coordinated by the Clinton Global Initiative and other U.S. aid organizations.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

A child stops on a Monrovia street September 12, 2014, to look at a man who is suspected of suffering from Ebola.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

After an Ebola case was confirmed in Senegal, people load cars with household items as they prepare to cross into Guinea from the border town of Diaobe, Senegal, on September 3, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

A health worker wearing a protective suit conducts an Ebola prevention drill at the port in Monrovia on August 29, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

A burial team from the Liberian Ministry of Health unloads bodies of Ebola victims onto a funeral pyre at a crematorium in Marshall, Liberia, on August 22, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Dr. Kent Brantly leaves Emory University Hospital on August 21, 2014, after being declared no longer infectious from the Ebola virus. Brantly was one of two American missionaries brought to Emory for treatment of the deadly virus.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

An Ebola Task Force soldier beats a local resident while enforcing a quarantine on the West Point slum on August 20, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Local residents gather around a very sick Saah Exco, 10, in a back alley of the West Point slum on August 19, 2014. The boy was one of the patients that was pulled out of a holding center for suspected Ebola patients after the facility was overrun and closed by a mob on August 16. A local clinic then refused to treat Saah, according to residents, because of the danger of infection. Although he was never tested for Ebola, Saah's mother and brother died in the holding center.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Workers prepare the new Ebola treatment center on August 17, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Liberian police depart after firing shots in the air while trying to protect an Ebola burial team in the West Point slum of Monrovia on August 16, 2014. A crowd of several hundred local residents reportedly drove away the burial team and their police escort. The mob then forced open an Ebola isolation ward and took patients out, saying the Ebola epidemic is a hoax.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

A health worker disinfects a corpse after a man died in a classroom being used as an Ebola isolation ward August 15, 2014, in Monrovia.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Aid worker Nancy Writebol, wearing a protective suit, gets wheeled on a gurney into Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on August 5, 2014. A medical plane flew Writebol from Liberia to the United States after she and her colleague Dr. Kent Brantly were infected with the Ebola virus in the West African country.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Members of Doctors Without Borders adjust tents in the isolation area in Kailahun on July 20, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Boots dry in the Ebola treatment center in Kailahun on July 20, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Dr. Jose Rovira of the World Health Organization takes a swab from a suspected Ebola victim in Pendembu, Sierra Leone, on July 18, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Red Cross volunteers disinfect each other with chlorine after removing the body of an Ebola victim from a house in Pendembu on July 18, 2014.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

A scientist separates blood cells from plasma cells to isolate any Ebola RNA and test for the virus April 3, 2014, at the European Mobile Laboratory in Gueckedou, Guinea.

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Photos:The Ebola epidemic

Health specialists work March 31, 2014, at an isolation ward for patients at the facility in southern Guinea.

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The rights of these health workers once they return home is governed by U.S. guidelines and health laws that ultimately favor states over the federal government.

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now requires greater symptom monitoring of doctors and nurses returning from West Africa, but stops short of requiring any type of quarantine, according to new rules implemented this week.

States have the power to exceed those CDC guidelines, and some do.

"We have a federal system in this country in which states are given significant authority for governing their constituents. That is certainly true when it comes to public safety and public health," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said this week. "What we believe is important -- and I think this is a view that is shared by governors and local officials across the country -- is that these kinds of policies should be driven by science and the best scientific advice that is available."

The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, for which Hickox worked while in West Africa, condemned "blanket forced quarantine for health care workers returning from Ebola affected countries," the organization said this week.

Photos:Ebola patients in the United States

Photos:Ebola patients in the United States

Ebola patients in the United States – Amber Vinson, one of nine Ebola patients to be treated in the United States, was released from Atlanta's Emory University Hospital on Tuesday, October 28 -- two weeks after she was hospitalized in Dallas and 13 days after she was transferred to Emory. Vinson was one of two nurses diagnosed with Ebola after treating Liberian patient Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas.

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Photos:Ebola patients in the United States

Ebola patients in the United States – Nina Pham is a nurse and Vinson's colleague at a Dallas hospital. Both Pham and Vinson treated Thomas Eric Duncan in Dallas. Pham tested positive for Ebola on October 11, three days before Vinson. She eventually was treated at a National Institutes of Health facility in Maryland, which declared her Ebola-free on October 24.

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Photos:Ebola patients in the United States

Ebola patients in the United States – Thomas Eric Duncan was a Liberian resident who flew to Dallas to visit family and friends in September. He became ill after the flight and was hospitalized on September 28, becoming the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States. He died on October 8.

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Photos:Ebola patients in the United States

Ebola patients in the United States – Dr. Craig Spencer tested positive for Ebola at a New York City hospital on October 23, days after returning from Guinea, where he treated Ebola patients. He is being treated at Manhattan's Bellevue Hospital.

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Photos:Ebola patients in the United States

Ebola patients in the United States – American Ashoka Mukpo is a freelance cameraman who was working for NBC News in Liberia when he became ill with Ebola symptoms. He was flown to the Nebraska Medical Center on October 6, and he was declared Ebola-free on October 21.

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Photos:Ebola patients in the United States

Ebola patients in the United States – A male health care worker who was infected with Ebola in Sierra Leone was flown to the United States, arriving at Atlanta's Emory University Hospital on September 9. The hospital declined to name him, citing his desire to be anonymous. The hospital said on October 20 that he had been released.

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Photos:Ebola patients in the United States

Ebola patients in the United States – Dr. Rick Sacra was delivering babies in a hospital in Liberia when he contracted Ebola. He tested positive in Liberia on September 1 and was eventually flown to the United States, where he became the first Ebola patient to be treated at the Nebraska Medical Center's biocontainment unit. He was declared Ebola-free on September 25.

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Photos:Ebola patients in the United States

Ebola patients in the United States – Nancy Writebol, an American missionary, tested positive for Ebola in Liberia in July. She was flown to Atlanta's Emory University Hospital, arriving on August 6, and she was released on August 19.

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Photos:Ebola patients in the United States

Ebola patients in the United States – Dr. Kent Brantly contracted Ebola while working as the medical director for Samaritan's Purse Ebola Care Center in Monrovia, Liberia, in July. He was the first person to be treated with the experimental drug ZMapp and was the first patient to be brought to the United States. Treatment at Emory started on August 2, and he was released on August 21.

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"Such a measure is not based upon established medical science," the group said.

The group supports "scientifically grounded monitoring" for homeward-bound aid workers, which "is in accordance with the recommendations of public health experts."

The virus is spread through the direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infectious person -- that is, someone who shows symptoms of the virus -- and with surfaces and materials contaminated with those fluids. People remain infectious as long as their blood and bodily fluids contain the virus, and men can still transmit the virus through breast milk and semen for up to seven weeks after they recover from the disease, the World Health Organization says.

To demonstrate how the Hickox case can divide even the most sympathetic supporters, the freelance NBC cameraman who was a former Ebola patient endorsed Hickox's declarations that she has a human and constitutional right to exit her home and roam the outdoors.

But would Ashoka Mukpo make that choice himself in the aftermath of his recovery from Ebola?

Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – Thomas Eric Duncan is a Liberian resident who flew to Dallas to visit family and friends. He was the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States. He passed away on October 8.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – Nina Pham, 26, is a Dallas nurse involved in Duncan's care who was diagnosed with Ebola, marking the first known transmission of Ebola in the United States. She had on a gown, gloves, mask and a shield during her multiple visits with Duncan, but there was a breach in protocol, health officials said.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – Amber Vinson, 29, was the second nurse to be diagnosed with Ebola after treating Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – A nurse's assistant identified as Teresa Romero Ramos tested positive for Ebola after treating a Spanish missionary with the deadly virus in Madrid, Spain. Her case is the first recorded transmission of Ebola outside of West Africa during this outbreak.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden has led the effort to evacuate and treat American patients and has helped U.S. hospitals prepare for a possible outbreak at home. The CDC also has teams working in West Africa assisting with contact tracing and infection control.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – Dr. Kent Brantly contracted Ebola while working as the medical director for Samaritan's Purse Ebola Care Center in Monrovia, Liberia. He was the first person to be treated with the experimental drug ZMapp and was the first patient to be brought home to the United States.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – Nancy Writebol is an American missionary with SIM USA who also contracted Ebola in Liberia. She, too, was given ZMapp and flown back to the United States for treatment.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – Dr. Margaret Chan has been the World Health Organization's director-general since 2006. Originally from China, she has a strong background in communicable diseases and infection control.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – Texas Gov. Rick Perry has overseen the state's response to Duncan's case. State and local health officials are working with the CDC to monitor around 50 individuals who had contact with the Ebola patient while he was contagious.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – American Dr. Rick Sacra was delivering babies in a hospital in Liberia when he contracted Ebola. He was the first Ebola patient to be treated in The Nebraska Medical Center's biocontainment unit.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – American Ashoka Mukpo is a freelance cameraman who was working for NBC News in Liberia when he became ill with Ebola symptoms. He was flown to The Nebraska Medical Center on October 6.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has been very outspoken about the international community's response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Liberia has had the most cases and deaths of all the countries affected by the outbreak.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – Alpha Conde is the president of Guinea, which has had more than 1,100 cases, including 739 deaths.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – Ernest Bai Koroma is the president of Sierra Leone, which has had more than 2,400 cases, including 623 deaths.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – The well-known Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan, left, died after contracting Ebola while helping patients in Sierra Leone.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – Joanne Liu is the international president of Medecins Sans Frontieres, also known as Doctors Without Borders. MSF has been on the ground in West Africa since the outbreak started and has played a key role in treating thousands of patients in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – Spanish priest Manuel Garcia Viejo was diagnosed with Ebola while working in Sierra Leone. He was flown back to Spain for treatment before he died. A nurse's assistant who treated him in Spain is believed to have contracted the virus as well.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – Patrick Sawyer collapsed after getting off a plane in Lagos, Nigeria, and later died. Health officials believe he was the start of the small outbreak in that country.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – Dr. Gorbee Logan is one of two doctors for more than 85,000 people in Bomi County, Liberia. Logan says he has successfully treated Ebola patients with anti-retroviral drugs, which are commonly used to treat HIV.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – Fatu Kekula has cared for four family members who had Ebola, keeping three alive without infecting herself using trash bags, rubber boots and a mask.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams is commander of the U.S. military's Operation United Assistance in West Africa. The U.S. will be sending around 3,600 troops to the region to help fight the Ebola outbreak.

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Photos:Who's who in the Ebola outbreak?

Who's who in the Ebola outbreak? – Valerie Amos, the United Nations under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, has been leading the U.N.'s response to the outbreak.

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Not entirely, he said.

Even though the cameraman is now free of the virus, he recently chose not to visit a Halloween gathering because he didn't want to provoke public anxiety at a jack-o'-lantern exhibition attended by more 8,000 people.

"You know, I just worry about making people uncomfortable. I think I need a couple of weeks out of the hospital where I really can say, look, I've been fine for three weeks," Mukpo told CNN.

"It is quite obvious that Snyderman is an arrogant and egotistical woman who has no concern/regard for anyone but herself," one man wrote.

"I hope this doesn't just 'blow over' in a month and NBC doesn't allow you to return to your position as chief medical correspondent," one woman wrote.

Dr. Nancy Snyderman appears on NBC News' 'Today' show.

Snyderman later apologized for how members of her team, which had visited Ebola-infected Liberia, "violated" quarantine guidelines.

Court challenge

Mary Mayhew, Maine's health commissioner, has said the process to seek a court order imposing a quarantine on Hickox has already begun.

It's not entirely clear which side would win that court battle, partly because Ebola is regarded as a menace with no established cure and partly because there's no evidence that Hickox has the disease, let alone a symptom suggesting it, experts say.

Under the U.S. Constitution, states have the authority over public health issues, except at international airports and seaports, where the federal government has jurisdiction, said attorney Steven Gravely, who wrote Virginia's quarantine laws.

"We quarantine folks who have been exposed to a communicable disease, but who are not yet infected," Gravely said. "The goal is to try to keep people who have been exposed, who may or may not be sick, from infecting other people. And so there's a sound basis for quarantine medically, but there's a lot of debate about whether -- what New York and New Jersey did was really appropriate."

Science vs. politics

Hickox's attorneys contend there is no medical evidence that Hickox has any sign of Ebola.

She's therefore no threat to society, her attorneys say.

Rather, Maine's effort to seek a mandatory quarantine is based on politics, not science, said one of Hickox's attorneys, Normal Siegel.

"This should not be directed and led by the politicians. It should be led by the medical community," Siegel said. "The government can't take away your liberty unless there is a compelling basis for it."

Photos:Ebola fears hit Africa's safari industry hard

Photos:Ebola fears hit Africa's safari industry hard

Safari tourism suffering in Africa – A leopard in Botswana's Mashatu Game Reserve. Though the country is located nearly 5,000 kilometers from West Africa's Ebola-stricken areas, some tourists are holding off on visiting.

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Photos:Ebola fears hit Africa's safari industry hard

Mikumi National Park (Tanzania) – Jake McCormick, safari specialist with Shadows of Africa, says the Ebola outbreak has caused a 70% decrease in inquiries at his company, which offers tours in Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda and Zanzibar. This elephant was photographed in Tanzania's Mikumi National Park.

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Photos:Ebola fears hit Africa's safari industry hard

Kruger National Park (South Africa) – Wouter Vergeer, owner of SafariBookings.com, says South Africa's safari industry hasn't been hit as hard by Ebola fears as its East Africa counterparts. This hippopotamus was photographed in South Africa's Kruger National Park.

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Photos:Ebola fears hit Africa's safari industry hard

Mashatu Game Reserve (Botswana) – Giraffes in the Mashatu Game Reserve in Botswana. "Numerous safari tour operators report that clients view Africa as a single country when it comes to risk assessment," says Vergeer of Safaribookings.com.

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Photos:Ebola fears hit Africa's safari industry hard

Okavango Delta (Botswana) – Botswana's Okavango Delta is the world's largest inland delta and home to an abundance of wildlife.

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Photos:Ebola fears hit Africa's safari industry hard

Edeni Game Reserve (South Africa) – Lion cubs in the Edeni Game Reserve in South Africa. Edeni is a 21,000-acre wilderness area located near Kruger National Park.

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Photos:Ebola fears hit Africa's safari industry hard

Nairobi, Kenya – Kenyan health officials take passengers' temperatures as they arrive at the Jommo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi in August. According to the WHO, there have been no reported cases of Ebola in Kenya to date, though the country's role as a transportation hub in East Africa makes it vulnerable to the disease.

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The absence of any illness in Hickox is among the more salient facets of the expected court case, said CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin said.

"Maine has a law, like all states have law, that say people with contagious diseases can be forced in quarantine," Toobin said. "The legal question... is whether her condition, in perfectly good health without symptoms, counts as something that is covered by the law. That is a hard legal question because judges usually defer to public health authorities about their sense of risk.

"But here every scientific expert says that people without symptoms are not contagious," Toobin added. "I think this is going to be a very hard legal problem unless her lawyers and the state of Maine can work out some sort of compromise."